Butterfly Camouflage

The wings of this Giant Brazillian Owl Butterfly help to camouglage it from predators. The large circular eye-spots, resembling an owls eye, may even scare some of them away.

It has long been assumed, for example, that the eyespots adorning the wings of many butterflies and moths are designed to deter would-be predators by mimicking the stares of more formidable adversaries. However, there’s another possibility. Eyespots might simply startle prospective predators with a sudden flash of bright, contrasting colours rather than mimic eyes specifically.

The Giant Owl Butterflies are of the family Nymphalidae and species genus Caligo and are known for their huge eyespots, which resemble owls' eyes. They are found in the rainforests and secondary forests of Mexico, Central and South America.

Owl butterflies are very large, (2.6–7.9 in), and fly only a few meters at a time, so avian predators have little difficulty in following them to their settling place. However, the butterflies preferentially fly in dusk, when few avian predators are around.

There are some twenty species in this genus, which can be divided into six groups that might constitute subgenera.

The species in my image is the Caligo brasiliensis also called the Brazilian owl, sulanus owl, or almond-eyed owl. The species can be found in most of South America as various subspecies, including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Its range extends through Trinidad, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama north to Mexico.

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